David Campbell Bannerman, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Mr President, as Chair of the Delegation for relations with Iraq, I of course share the objective of tackling terrorist financing. However, I cannot share enthusiasm for this report. Its excessive scope captures too large a volume of cultural goods, with the potential to create disruption to legitimate trade, not to mention burdensome, even unworkable, customs procedures.

The original aim has been totally lost amid a desire to control the art market. This is of course of considerable concern to the UK with its prominence in the art world. Items that bear no relation to stemming terrorist finance, even for example a map of 1900s America, would be caught up in this regulation. It is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I had initially proposed to limit the scope of the proposal by recommending an age and value threshold. Instead, this requires an extensive list of documents to prove origin, otherwise they will be treated as illicit imports. Overall, I wish we had a more balanced approach that would help combat terrorist financing, but without creating such impractical red tape.

(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question under Rule 162(8))